I found a way to use Claude Opus 4.5 for free. Then Thailand cut my electricity...

Week six in Bangkok: racing against time with free AI tokens (and getting cut off mid-code)

December 14th, 2025. I'm in full development mode now. The secret project is taking shape faster than I expected, thanks to AI. But Bangkok threw me a curveball this week...

My Python script is almost done

The magic ingredient? AI-assisted coding. I've been working with Claude Opus 4.5 and Gemini 3.0, and honestly, it's insane how much faster you can build when you have these models helping you write code, debug issues, and suggest optimizations.

I've been building API integrations, fine-tuning prompts for data extraction, and developing a pretty powerful content scraper that uses parallelization to speed things up. I also had to implement anti-detection measures to avoid getting blocked by anti-bot systems (because yes, websites don't always like being scraped 😅).

I'm not going to share more details for now. I want to keep the project under wraps until I have something solid to show. But let's just say I'm working on something that I genuinely need myself, which is always the best sign.

The progress has been incredibly motivating! Every day brings new challenges, but they're the fun kind of challenges where you're actually building something real, not just prototyping or experimenting.

How to code for free with Claude Opus 4.5 and Gemini 3.0 (the French way)

Okay, this section is for all my fellow French who hate paying for things when there's a free alternative 😂

Here's the hack: Google just launched Antigravity, their new agentic IDE. It's basically a super-powered code editor where AI agents can write entire features for you, not just autocomplete lines of code. Same as Cursor, but completely free.

The best part? Antigravity gives you access to multiple AI models: Gemini 3.0 Pro (Google's latest model), Claude Sonnet 4.5, and even Claude Opus 4.5. All for free during the preview period, with "generous rate limits" that refresh every 5 hours.

But here's where it gets even better: if you create a Google One trial account (which gives you 1 month free), you can get even more AI tokens. And when your trial expires? Just use another Gmail account and start a new trial. Rinse and repeat.

I know, I know, it's peak French behavior to game the system like this 😅. But hey, when you're bootstrapping a SaaS with limited runway, every euro saved matters!

My advice? Jump on this now. Google won't keep Antigravity free forever, and the generous limits will probably get tightened once more people discover this. So if you want to build your project with top-tier AI models without paying $100-200/month for Cursor or Claude subscriptions, this is your window.

Download Antigravity, create your Google account, and start shipping before they close the loophole.

When MEA cuts your power mid-code

So here's a fun story about how I lost several hours of work this week.

It was Wednesday afternoon. Bangkok was hitting 33°C outside. I was in full coding flow, AC blasting at full power to keep my brain from melting. Claude Opus 4.5 was in the middle of writing multiple files for my scraper system when suddenly…

Everything went dark.

No warning. No flickering lights. Just instant BLACKOUT.

My laptop was on battery, but that didn't help because Claude was running on the cloud and I lost the internet connection. All those files that were being generated? Gone. The progress I'd made in the last 2 hours? Gone. My Python script? Broken 😱

I was confused at first. Did the whole building lose power? Nope. Just my unit.

Turns out I hadn't paid my first electricity bill…

Here's what happened: when I signed my condo lease, my real estate agent told me I'd receive my electricity bill in my mailbox. So I was waiting for it like a good tenant. Except that's not how it works in my condo.

You're supposed to register yourself directly with MEA (Metropolitan Electricity Authority). They don't automatically send you a bill just because you moved in. You have to go through the registration process, link your unit to your account, and then you start receiving bills.

Nobody told me this. I genuinely had no idea 🤦‍♂️

Thankfully, the juristic office in my condo came to the rescue. They helped me register with MEA on the spot, explained the payment process, and I was able to pay my overdue bill within an hour. Power came back. Crisis averted.

But man, those lost hours hurt… When you're in the zone and everything just clicks, losing that momentum is painful. I had to reconstruct from memory what Claude wrote and, thanks to the developers I've worked with in the past, I learned how to use Github to get myself out of this situation.

Lesson learned: in Thailand, don't assume anything works like it does in France (or anywhere else in Europe). Always ask explicitly how administrative processes work, even for things as basic as electricity bills 😅

The silver lining? At least now I know the system. I've set up auto-payment reminders, and I check my MEA account regularly to make sure everything's squared away.

Building from Bangkok is a constant learning experience. Not just in terms of code and business, but also in terms of navigating a completely different administrative system. Every mistake teaches you something. Every curveball makes you more resilient.

This is week six in Bangkok. The project is moving fast. The hacks are real. And the electricity is (hopefully) staying on from now on.